The British Amateur Press Association was an

amateur press association An amateur press association (APA) is a group of people who produce individual pages or zines that are sent to a Central Mailer for collation and distribution to all members of the group. History The first APAs were formed by groups of amateur pr ...

created by comics fans in late 1977, following a proposal from Phil Greenaway in the letter pages of the

comics a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

fanzine A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''-zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by fan (person), enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) ...

'' BEM''; the first mailing (under the name ''PAPA'', the first initial standing for "Prime") was circulated in January 1978. Greenaway was the first Central Mailer and his successors included Maureen "Mo" James, Howard Stangroom, Les Chester, and Steve Green. For most of its existence, up to thirty members of BAPA submitted multiple copies of at least two A4 pages to the central mailer every two months. BAPA was disbanded on 17 August 2004Dave Langford, 'Infinitely Improbable', ''Ansible'' 206, (September 2004) ISSN 0265-9816 with a final mailing distributed early in 2005. A one-off publication was also distributed under the name B-APA (sic) in 2005, in memory of Andy Roberts; a similar publication was announced in 2008, in memory of

Steve Whitaker Steve Whitaker (26 June 1955 – 22 February 2008) was a British artist best known as the colourist on the reprint of ''V for Vendetta''. David Lloyd, the artist on ''V for Vendetta'', said Whitaker "was not only one of the finest colourists B ...

. Notable members of this association included

Eddie Campbell Eddie Campbell (born 10 August 1955) is a British comics artist and cartoonist who now lives in Chicago. Probably best known as the illustrator and publisher of ''From Hell'' (written by Alan Moore), Campbell is also the creator of the semi-au ...

Mark Finch Mark Finch (21 October 1961 – 14 January 1995) was an English promoter of LGBT cinema. Having founded and expanded several international film festivals he created the first LGBT film market for distributors, sales agents, and independent film p ...

, John Freeman, Steve Green, artist

Nigel Kitching Nigel Kitching (born 29 May 1959) is a British comic book writer and artist. He is best known for his work in British comics, especially '' Sonic the Comic,'' the premiere UK depiction of Sonic the Hedgehog. Since 2001, Kitching has lectured a ...

Martin Lock Martin Lock (born 1950Willis, Russell"AN INTERVIEW WITH MARTIN LOCK (PART THREE , THE HARRIER COMICS YEARS),"''Under the Stairs'' (2013). Accessed Feb. 8, 2020. in the United Kingdom) is a British comic book critic, writer, and publisher. As pu ...

, Andy Roberts,

Martin Skidmore Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austral ...

(later publisher of ''

Fantasy Advertiser ''Fantasy Advertiser'', later abbreviated to ''FA'', was a British fanzine focused on comic books, founded in 1965 by Frank Dobson, the "Godfather of British Fandom."Skinn, Dez"Early days of UK comics conventions and marts," DezSkinn.com. Access ...

'' and then editor of

Trident Comics Trident Comics was a comic book publishing company based in Leicester, UK, specialising in black and white comics created by new British talent. It was formed in 1989 as an offshoot of the comics distributor/wholesaler Neptune Distribution, a ...

), and artist Steve Whitaker.

References

Comics magazines published in the United Kingdom Comics-related organizations Comics publications 1977 establishments in the United Kingdom Organizations established in 1977 Communications and media organisations based in the United Kingdom {{UK-comics-stub

See also

References